, but we cannot refrain from
referring to the sufferings of these children of the North, boys and
girls, torn from their families, carried off like bands of slaves to
other invaded regions to be employed on forced labour. France has
apprised the neutral countries of these facts: Will they remain silent?

[20] Further on it will be seen that much worse happened on numerous
other journeys.

[21] "We got one pound of black sour bread per diem. In the morning we
had a tepid decoction intended for coffee; at mid-day a pint and a half
of thick soup, and at night rather less than a pint of thin soup. On
three occasions only did we get potatoes, but never once meat. Cabbage
soup was the usual thing and after a certain time it turned our
stomachs. Certain prisoners were employed in chopping up the cabbages to
make sauerkraut, and they had to keep the broken leaves, as these were
used up for our soup."

[22] Through an old habit, the Commission makes use of this word; they
are not "hostages," of course.

[23] It must also be noted that when the Commissioners making the
enquiry saw the repatriated people, they had had some time in which to
recover, first in Switzerland, and then in France. The arrival of these
pitiable drafts gave rise (even among those of the Swiss people who were
in principle the least hostile to Germany) to such a feeling of horror
for their executioners that the Kaiser took warning and thought it wiser
to suspend the repatriations for several months. For the welcome and the
kind care which our poor martyrs received at the hands of the Swiss, our
grateful thanks and salutations are due!

GERMAN EXCUSES: LIES AND CALUMNY

The Boches have taken up three positions in succession. In the first
place, in their speeches, in their writings and by commemorative
pictures and medals, _they have gloried in their misdeeds_, thus
declaring that Kultur is above morality (as stated by their writer,
Thomas Mann), and that the right of German might is above everything.
Then, in the second place, when they discovered that in the world
outside them there was something known as a "moral conscience," not
understood by them, but still to be reckoned with, _they cynically
denied the charges_. Finally, when they were driven from this second
trench, when simple negation became impossible, _they had perforce to
explain their crimes_.

Their commonest explanation is this, "Civilians fired on us."[24] The
French Commission